How To Survive The Dentist

If a visit to the dentist fills you with dread and your 20 minutes in the chair is 20 minutes of extreme stress, this might help.

Dentists - Ugh!

I don't know about you, but I get nervous before going to the dentist. And once I'm sitting in that chair, even for a check up, it can be torture. Even the most gentle of prods carries with it the expectation of terrible pain.

The hygienist is even worse. That dreadful, screeching machine doing its best to seek out the sensitive spots.

But most of it is of course in the mind. So, distract yourself, stop obsessing about what might happen, about how painful the next scrape could be, and you're going to be a lot more relaxed. But how?


Lie Back And Think Of...

How do you distract yourself? This is the sort of thing that works for me.

If you're into poetry, learn a long poem before you go. When you're in the chair recite it (silently) to yourself. All the better if you forget a bit and have to struggle to recall it.

Or perhaps it's music with you? Mentally list all your favourite artist's recordings, or all the number 1 hits from 1979, or the venues the Rolling Stones played in 1969. Or the challenge could be to remember all the words of you favourite song. Whatever takes your fancy.

Maybe you're more into football? How about listing 20th century Manchester United players? First, one beginning with A, then one beginning with B, then C and so on. I rarely get much past Head these days, but that's old age for you.

What works best for me is music. I will listen several times to a piece before I go. Then in the chair I mentally play it back note for note. If you like classical try Mozart's Laudate Dominum K339. It's just long enough to be a bit tricky to remember every note: where the soloist comes in; when the choir comes in; exactly how the piece finishes with both singing in harmony. I always lose track somewhere along the line and have to start again. And before you know it it's: "There, all done." And you're thinking, "Hang on, can you do a bit more? I haven't finished yet!" Well, almost.


Finally

Or maybe when you're next in the chair you can spend your time thinking up an even better mental challenge than the above?